


Bravado

by Red_and_R3d



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Disfigurement, M/M, Pining, Possibly Unrequited Love, Unconditional Love, originally one shot but may add more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-14 23:45:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9210530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_and_R3d/pseuds/Red_and_R3d
Summary: You thought you could do it. That you could pull the trigger. But even after all these years the feelings are still there, the pain, the wanting, and you chastise yourself for how weak you've become.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a warm-up write that got deeper than I expected and posted just before my computer died. Enjoy.

    It was too much to see him again. A re-encounter that had always been a longing dream, reality shifted into a nightmare. You thought you could do it. That you could pull the trigger. But even after all these years the feelings are still there, the pain, the wanting, and you chastise yourself for how weak you've become. You want to blame old age, that the trials of your youth have exhausted you and that your weary soul has gone soft; but you know better. You will ache for him, no matter how old and bitter you become. Even now as you bleed onto the cold ground, the searing wound of a gunshot in your abdomen while his boot pins your neck. As you gaze up into his mask, nostalgia kicks in and you're reminded of Switzerland all over again. It's exactly the same as it was back then, with you bleeding from your side with his boot on your neck and a gun pointed to your head. The only difference is instead of the explosion postponing your death, he now has a shot to kill you. _Literally._

 

However just like back then, you can feel yourself giving in, almost desperate for him to take the shot and end it all.

 

 

"I've waited too long for this..." His voice is a raspy behind the mask, but otherwise he sounds just the same. It makes your heart sink. You never realized how much you missed his voice. You want to hear more. You know he's won so there's no point in dragging it out, but you're greedy so you throw him some bait to see if you can keep him talking.

 

"Figures you'd go for a Darth Vader look..." you cough out, voice shaky, "...You always were a _Star Wars_ nerd..." you can smell the blood trickling down from your mouth behind your visor, "the claws are a bit much though." Your chuckle turns into a grunt as he applies pressure against your neck.

 

" _Really Morrison?_ On the ground about to die, and yet you let your last words be a weak-ass insult. Why am I not surprised."

 

 

Even as your breath becomes constricted by the pressure you still somehow let a smile grace your face, hidden behind your visor. Well if you're going to die anyways, why not make the most of it.

 

 

"What I find more insulting is that mask of yours." You force the wind out of your lungs, wheezing every so often as you speak, "Hate to burst your bubble Reyes...barn owls aren't that scary."

 

 _"_ You think this is a joke?! **_You think I wear this just for fun?!_** _"_

 

 

Oh, looks like you got him mad. Shocker.

 

Suddenly the gun presses into your forehead as he leans down and for a brief moment you think that's it. It's finally happening; and when the gun shifts you brace yourself for the sound of the trigger and close your eyes as you begin to whisper the same prayer your mother told you so many years ago, before you walked down that dirt road for the last time-

_click_

You stop breathing, Surprisingly enough you're still alive, and you open your eyes to the sound of a second _click_ , watching as Gabe unfastens his mask slowly, revealing the truth underneath.

 

"Look at me _Jack_. Look what I've become-I want you to see the torture Ziegler's put me through ever since she decided to play God. Jack, _look me in the eye-"_

 

In a flash Gabe tosses his gun to the side and rips your visor clean off your face and your blinded by the white of the snowy landscape around you and was the sun always this bright? You rarely take your visor off and when you do it’s typically at night. You've gotten so used to seeing heat signatures and targets that you forget some times that the world isn't just outlines of red and blue. You squint as your eyes adjust while he brings his face so close that his shadow looms over you, shielding you from the light.

 

His face was scared, badly. Some scars you remember from the past, souvenirs from glory days on the battlefield. Others more recent, caused by the explosion. His right eye was hollow, pitch black with small traces of smoke that seeped from the corners of the socket, while the skin around it was seared by the burning heat. Parts of his right cheek were missing, revealing his teeth, and his ear was gone, replaced by a steady stream of smoke. His right eyebrow was gone too, and his nose looked like it was burned on the same side. It's a sight you're not used to, granted, but it doesn't scare you, or shock you. In fact, what bothers you about it is that you don't feel bothered at all; and you can tell by the way Gabe's brow furrows and his body shifts that he's a bit unsettled by how little you're reacting. Still, you just tilt your head and look up towards him absently, taking your time absorbing all the minute features and details of his face into your memory; and it only takes a split second for you to realize why it doesn't bother you the way it should. Your brow cringes as you let out a soft laugh, feeling the blood-loss begin to take its toll. He growls, gritting his teeth, yet with no check it looks almost animalistic.

 

"Damn..." You whisper, and you watch as Gabe's eye narrows.

 

"...You still got it..."

 

You smile weakly as you gaze up at him fondly, vision beginning to blur at the edges, yet Gabe's face still in focus and you watch unexpected as his eye widens. Your voice grows faint as your heartbeat slows. Maybe it’s the delirium kicking in. Maybe it’s because you know you don't have much longer whether he decides to take the shot again or not. Either way, you let it slip.

 

"Still my Gabe...Perfect in every...way..."

 

 

Your eyes are tired, and the once white of the land grows darker; and as your vision fades you feel the pressure against your neck relieved.  The world falls quiet around you and you exhale one last time before closing your weary eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

You think of the first time you saw Gabe smile as the darkness engulfs your mind, leaving you with the fading echo of your name in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
